Well I haven't blogged for a while, so thought it was about time I gave you an update.
Last Tuesday was a very interesting training session to say the least. I went to the advanced lesson and at the end we were king-of-the-hill sparring from knees. I was waiting in the line and I could hear my brother Matt in the corner asking some guy if he was going to tap. Matt had him in a choke and the guy wasn't giving up. Well he got choked out and started to fit. I had never experienced something like that before so was scary to watch! Everyone reacts differently when they are choked out, I assumed everybody just drifts off, so it was horrible to watch someone actually having a fit.
Rachel's Rule of the Lesson - DON'T BE A HERO - it's only training and if you can feel the choke coming on, just tap. There's no point pushing yourself to the limit and getting hurt in training. In a competition its different :)
On a lighter note - at the end after the cool down I was called to the front and Andy gave me my first stripe! :) Matt I'm catching you up! lol.
The following day was Antony's funeral. It was a lovely service and he had a brilliant send-off. Well done to Jamie for his speech, it was beautiful! xx
The rest of last week involved lots of back control work (which is my favourite) and also practice of takedowns. I was paired with Matt first for the takedowns and got him with a really good cheeky throw. Completely caught him off guard and I was very proud of myself to say the least. Lol but that was short-lived coz payback is a b*tch and he was throwing me all over the academy after that!
On Friday we were sparring 5 minute-rounds from knees with everyone. I loved it although I was shattered by the end and had to sit out of the last one. I'd learnt some new chokes outside of the academy [ ;o) Thank you ] and managed to use one of them when I took someone's back.
I was supposed to go to the Bristol Open on Sunday but I managed to get a knee to the face on Saturday with Dorian when we were sparring take-downs (thanks for that lol) and I woke up Sunday in agony. I thought my nose was broken. No bruises luckily but a pretty bump in the bridge!! I'll be sporting cauliflower ears next! Lol pretty!
I'm unsure of which comps I'll be going to. There's so many to choose from!
I've already bought flights to the Scandinavian Open on 16/17 October, and now the Amsterdam Open is the following week - 25 October and I'm really up for that!
There's a Girls Only camp in Stockholm on 31st October which clashes with the No-Gi British Open on 1st November and also there's the Kent Open which I really want to compete in.
Lotsss to think about over the next couple of weeks preparing for the competitions. Need to prioritise, but I'll definitely go and support all the guys even if I don't compete myself.
